A while back, word had spread that a new David Bowie single had hit YouTube. Was this a one-off? Was an album on the way?

I knew he had suffered a heart attack a while back and had ‘retired’ from music, only to be seen walking around New York as an interested observer. Well, you can’t keep a rock god down, or so they say.

Over the last two years Bowie has written and demoed many songs and the result is The Next Day. The single ‘Where Are We Now?’ is a journey to the places and images of his past (accompanied by a wonderful film clip). This song, though, is the only one that really looks back. All the others are observations or inspired by books; the title track is one such song, influenced by medieval English history.

The mix of fast and slow tempos is exactly what you want from a Bowie album, and that voice is as haunting and commanding as ever. The Next Day sees the Thin White Duke as far from spent.

Welcome back – we missed you.

Lou Fulco works as a bookseller at Readings Hawthorn.